Want to write better web copy? I’ve got back to some fairly heavy-duty blogging recently, just as Google retire Google Reader. The trip inspired me to add a some suggestions for web writing:

Whose words are these?

Remember how you use Google to search for ‘stuff’: people do not search for adjectives / adverbs, they search for products, brands and product types.

The key here is to use the language of your reader, not your own. Technology companies can be particularly bad at this, posting in company or product-specific terms that no-one is likely to search for, or that (in the worst cases) are completely unintelligible to potential customers.

How do your reader’s talk about your topic? Do you need to explain some of your terms?

While I agree with using adjectives, my observation is that people search for problem/solution terms more frequently than they search for product names, unless they are a long way into the buying cycle.

How do you search?

Think about how you use Google yourself, and note what kind of language you use when you search. As an example, the most used search phrases related to “iPhone screen” are “iphone repair” and “iphone display”, which have about the same monthly search volume as the phrase “how to repair an iphone.” By comparison, the phrase “iphone cracked screen repair” has only a tiny percentage of that volume. Have a play with the Google Keyword Tool.

It certainly doesn’t. But it does make assumptions based on what you link to and what links to you. Make use of relevant links in your posts, and write for humans first, search engines second. Having a precisely keyworded title is no good if no-one clicks on the post to read it.

Writing for the web isn’t the same as writing a book or an email. People scan web pages, rather than reading them. Have visual anchors in your pages. Do you see how that worked? Bold text, call outs and images all provide places for readers’ eyes to rest, and potential entry points to your writing. Try the following techniques: